The 2000 TIME Current Events Quiz

By Bennett Singer and Dan Zinkus

FACES IN THE NEWS Match each numbered description to the photograph of the newsmaker who fits it best.

1 First black president of an Ivy League institution

2 Scientist accused of stealing the "crown jewels" of America's nuclear arsenal

3 Harvard-educated citrus heir, chicken dancer, Florida secretary of state

4 Her literary offspring owns the best-seller lists

5 George W. Bush described this person as a "major-league a__hole"

6 Olympic gold-medal winner and symbol of her people's pride

7 Missouri widow who inherited her late husband's Senate seat

8 M.C. of history's largest heads-of-state meeting

9 Most downloaded woman on the Internet (on a cost-free basis)

10 Jumbo Wyoming farm boy who beat a three-time champion to win Olympic gold in wrestling

11 In the eyes of many, the person responsible for touching off the Holy Land's latest crisis

12 Grammy winner as Best New Artist of the Year

13 DNA testing confirmed this person's death in prison

14 Fellow castaways called him a snake, but he can live with the title and $1 million

15 Opponent of lengthy engagements--and marriages

16 Former colonel of the Syrian army and follower in his father's footsteps

17 First woman to command a U.S. warship; mother of two adopted Russian children

18 Winner of this year's Nobel Peace Prize for promoting northern exposure

19 Consumer crusader or election spoiler?

20 Maybe he's glad he's out of Florida?

THE YEAR IN ARTS Match the excerpt from TIME to the photo of the artist or work.

1 "It howls like a werewolf. It kills with the brutal indifference of Dracula. Like a rabid dog, it rages and spits. Like Diane Sawyer, it never sleeps."

2 "Acrobatic tap dancer who with his older brother helped break the color barrier in Hollywood musicals... Mikhail Baryshnikov called them 'the most amazing dancers I've ever seen in my life--ever.'"

3 "By painting what he knew, neither more nor less, he became the standard-bearer of visual truth to a generation of French intellectuals."

4 "More than any other British actor of his stature, [he] had a miniaturist style that was made for movies. He knew the camera would find him. But not find him out."

5 "It's a solemn album, and although not religious, its soulful vocals and reggae-inflected grooves have the quiet power of prayer... Just as prayers are ultimately about love, this CD is suffused with that emotion as well."

6 "No conveniently arranged sheets, no angst, no kisses shot from the back: in 10 hot minutes [this work] opens the closet of gay...sexuality and chucks in a neon stick of dynamite."

7 "[This film] simply narrates what happens when the goofus comes home to sponge some money from the doofus and incidentally, almost accidentally, stirs an emotional frenzy. It is also, just possibly, the best American movie of this fast-dwindling year."

8 "Males have not, as a rule, joined [this writer's] fan clubs, and this novel suggests a reason: they are seldom the central figures in the author's world."

9 "[This band] began to write its own rules, creating rock mini-suites...and writing lyrics that captured the numbing ambivalence that many people feel about living in a microprocessed age."

10 "A political parody of media venality, it's The Producers crossed with In Living Color, or Network meets Bulworth. And despite its sternest intentions and laudably high squirm content, the movie is often fun."

11 "A heart-melting romance with guy talk for the fellas and a mellow alt-rock sound track, [this series] fits the 30-ish heterosexual-couple demographic like a comfy pair of Dockers. Maybe too much so: funny but safe, it's TV's answer to the date movie."

12 "The bras that peek above her sweaters--they're more colorful than a Disney cartoon production number. They also provide the movie's only true uplift."

13 "[The artist's voice] could draw a word out into a long cello note or quaver like the lead fiddle in the pit of a Victorian melodrama."

14 "One of the best CDs of the year. On...past albums, [the artist's] songs burned with anger. [The] new album...radiates forgiveness, and the music is often as sweet as strawberries and cream."

15 "[The artist] was closer to cinema than any other painter of his day, partly because he was obsessed by the power of cinema to make dreams immediate."

16 "[The protagonist] may, by modern standards, seem bloodthirsty and deluded, but [the] poetry makes eloquently persuasive the hero's tragic stature."

17 "His lifework is a reminder that self-awareness and a refined sense of irony do not mean affectlessness, that being a loser does not mean being defeated."

18 "A big, fat, rousing, intelligent, daring, retro, many-adjective-requiring entertainment. It has lots of fighting, but with a posh accent; this may be the first culturally acceptable version of WrestleMania."

19 "At a time when the tag 'singer-songwriter' was about as common as 'lady surgeon,' [the artist's] warm, croaking delivery often vaulted him up the charts."

20 "Plot has never been the sharpest arrow in [the author's] quiver, and [this book] holds true to form. It might, like...earlier works, be called a novel of ideas, but that is too bloodless a description... [The writer] portrays people with ideas--sometimes good, sometimes wacky--bumping into one another and sparking unpredictable reactions."

WHO SAID IT? CAMPAIGN 2000: The Regular Season Identify the source of each remark.

1. "I still believe in the importance of class."

a) Pat Buchanan b) Ralph Nader c) Barbara Bush d) Alan Keyes

2. "I welcome gay Americans into my campaign."

a) George W. Bush b) Ralph Nader c) Bill Bradley d) Pat Buchanan

3. "If you give people the impression you're a smarty-pants, that's no good for sure."

a) George W. Bush b) Al Gore c) Bill Bradley d) John McCain

4. "Religion centers me. It makes me prioritize my life. I know there is something out there, and we feel humbled."

a) Laura Bush b) Hillary Clinton c) Pat Buchanan d) Hadassah Lieberman

5. "I think I would like to be a better dancer."

a) Al Gore b) Hillary Clinton c) Laura Bush d) George W. Bush

6. "I don't believe rich Americans need tax breaks."

a) George W. Bush b) John McCain c) Pat Buchanan d) Steve Forbes

7. "I'm not gonna watch hours of tapes of myself, and I don't want to rehash all those debates."

a) George W. Bush b) John McCain c) Pat Buchanan d) Steve Forbes

8. "I'm quick with a quip."

a) Joseph Lieberman b) John McCain c) George W. Bush d) Steve Forbes

9. "If I were to lose my mind right now and pick one of you up and dash your head against the floor and kill you, would that be right?"

a) John McCain b) Pat Buchanan c) Alan Keyes d) Steve Forbes

AROUND THE WORLD Match each of the following descriptions with its appropriate place on the map of the world on the opposite page.

1 Infamous 12-year-old twins led "God's Army" here

2 Source of 80% of the cocaine and heroin entering the U.S.

3 Projected to have the world's second largest population of Internet users by 2005

4 This nation's new ruler dons numerous disguises to conduct snap inspections of government operations

5 Inclusion of a right-wing party in the government here angered other nations

6 The first meeting of leaders here in more than 50 years stirred hopes of reunion

7 Where a stunning victory by a former Coca-Cola exec upset the 71-year-old ruling party

8 Hasty withdrawal of occupying troops here after 18 years seemed to offer a promise of peace

9 The sinking of a submarine drove home that only 10% of the ships in this nation's inventory are considered fit to put to sea

10 Bill Clinton's trip to this country was the first by a U.S. President in 22 years

11 Country where voters rejected strongman in a presidential ballot--which he defiantly dismissed

12 Country that a U.N. official called "a perfect model for everything that can go wrong in a peacekeeping operation"

13 Source of the devastating Love Bug computer virus

14 A terrorist blast ripped the U.S.S. Cole here

15 Country whose President said sayonara to it by fax while on an overseas trip

NAMES & NUMBERS Match each description with the appropriate name, number or term. (Not all answers will be used.)

1 Percentage of South Africa's 15-year-olds expected to die of AIDS in the next decade

2 Percentage of Americans who voted electronically

3 Number of years the musical Cats ran on Broadway before closing this year

4 Percentage of Americans who believe there is extraterrestrial life

5 The first pill devised to reduce the number of periods a woman experiences per year

6 Energy producer voted "most innovative large company in America" by industry observers

7 Number of executions exceeded in Texas during 2000, a record for a single state since authorities began keeping track in 1930

8 Citizens per 100,000 who are incarcerated in the U.S.

9 Estimated amount, in billions of dollars, spent on federal and state campaigns this year, the highest in U.S. history

10 Millions of dollars that the U.S. will pay China to rent two giant pandas for 10 years

11 Company that completed mapping of the human genome

12 Resistance movement of young Serbs who opposed Slobodan Milosevic

13 New high-speed Amtrak train in the Northeast

14 Approximate number of gay-straight student clubs in U.S. high schools

15 Number of hours the average Internet user spends online each week

Celera 9 hikikomori 50 AbioCor 37 Enron 10 chad 4 Otpor 727 Acela 18 oxygen 700 54 Seasonale 7.6 mifepristone

WHO SAID IT? ELECTION 2000: The Play-Offs Identify the source of each remark.

1. "[The presidential race is] as hot and tight as a too small bathing suit on a too long car ride back from the beach."

a) George W. Bush b) Ann Richards c) Dan Rather d) Molly Ivins

2. "The American people have now spoken, but it's going to take a while to determine exactly what they said."

a) Jeb Bush b) Clarence Thomas c) Bill Clinton d) James Baker

3. "The outcome of this election will not be the result of deals or efforts to mold public opinion. [It] will be determined by the votes and by the law."

a) George W. Bush b) Al Gore c) Dick Cheney d) Joseph Lieberman

4. "When this Hillary gets to the Senate...she will be 1 of 100, and we won't let her forget it."

a) Bill Clinton b) John McCain c) Trent Lott d) Ted Kennedy

5. "You can't spoil a system spoiled to the core."

a) Pat Buchanan b) Alan Keyes c) Ralph Nader d) Steve Forbes

6. "This is about much more than what happens to me or my opponent. It is about our democracy."

a) George W. Bush b) Al Gore c) Dick Cheney d) Joseph Lieberman

7. "I've never seen such a wholesale machinery of disenfranchisement at work [as what occurred in Florida]."

a) Rev. Jesse Jackson b) Fidel Castro c) Pat Robertson d) Warren Christopher

8. "I've decided that a presidential campaign is really not a place where great ideas and great issues can be best advanced."

a) Pat Buchanan b) Alan Keyes c) Ralph Nader d) Steve Forbes

9. "We don't just have egg on our face--we have an omelet."

a) Katherine Harris b) Tom Brokaw c) Jeb Bush d) Peter Jennings

10. "As you may have noticed, things have changed. The state of Florida is too close to call."

a) Dan Rather b) Al Gore c) Peter Jennings d) George W. Bush

11. "At some point there must be closure. At some point the lawyers must go home. We have reached that point."

a) Warren Christopher b) David Boies c) Dick Cheney d) James Baker

SIGNS OF THE TIMES Select the correct answer.

1 The second most heavily traded commodity in the world today is:

a) oil b) coffee c) sugar d) marijuana

2 The approximate number of species that become extinct each day around the world is:

a) 25 b) 50 c) 75 d) 100

3 The state whose supreme court ruled that the state must provide the same benefits to all couples, gay or straight, except the title of marriage itself is:

a) Arizona b) Hawaii c) Vermont d) Washington

4 While a freshman at Northeastern University, Shawn Fanning wrote the original code for:

a) Gnutella b) MP3 c) Linux d) Napster

5 Scientists estimate that unless emissions of CO2 and similar compounds are controlled, global temperatures by the end of the next century will rise how many degrees Fahrenheit?

a) 1 to 3 b) 2 to 7 c) 5 to 9 d) 8 to 11

6 The Governor of what state signed a 1997 law saying that in close elections, manual recounts are preferable to electronic recounts and that hanging and dimpled chads should be counted?

a) Alabama b) Florida c) Illinois d) Texas

7 Since 1980, college costs in the U.S. have risen what percentage?

a) about 25 b) 50 c) 75 d) more than 100

8 The amount U.S. men spent on gym memberships and home exercise equipment last year was:

a) $1 billion b) $4 billion c) $7 billion d) $10 billion

9 The 1994 Energy Policy and Conservation Act sparked an influx from Canada to the U.S. of:

a) furs b) boots c) toilets d) lightbulbs

10 Steve Case and Gerald Levin were key figures in the merger deal involving:

a) Bertelsmann and Napster b) Time Warner and AOL c) Vodaphone and AirTouch d) Gucci and LVMH